The Greatest Story Never Told
The Spoof
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
You’ll be the goose who laid the golden egg with Scunthorpe Industrial Chemicals’ duck hormone treatment
Ladies, do you suffer from painful periods? Is your monthly flow a bit of a handful?
Then why not try Scunthorpe Industrial Chemicals’ new duck hormone treatment.
National Geographic Daily News
Finger length linked to aggression, musical ability, sexual orientation.
Christine Dell’Amore
National Geographic News
Published September 7, 2011
Is your ring finger longer or shorter than your index finger? The reason for the difference is in our hormones, a new study in mice shows for the first time.
Before birth, the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone control genes that in turn dictate finger length, the study found. Like us, mice naturally have both hormones in their bodies. (Get a genetics overview.)
As a result, most men have ring fingers that are longer than their index fingers, and the reverse is true in women.
Differences in finger length have been repeatedly linked to a range of human traits, from aggression to musical ability to sexual orientation. There are also connections to health problems such as autism, depression, heart attacks, and cancer.
Emax Health
Submitted by Timothy Boyer on 2011-09-11
Women who use contraceptives that suppress sex hormones such as estrogen and progesterone remember things differently than women who are not on the pill, states researchers at the University of California, Irvine. These differences may explain a sexual dimorphism with post traumatic stress syndrome disorder (PTSD) where women experience PTSD more frequently than men.
Endocrine Today
Posted on August 31, 2011
Marsh EE. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2011;doi:10.1210/jc.2011-1314.
New data suggest that black women have higher levels of estradiol and lower androstenedione-to-estradiol ratios throughout the menstrual cycle compared with white women, a trend that may contribute to differences in the incidence and prevalence of health issues between these two populations.
Prevent Disease
The Economist reported this week that falling fertility rates around the world spell doom for many countries as the single life appeals to more women than replacing themselves through children.
For hundreds of years, the world’s population has grown steadily. But demographers now believe that within several decades, the number of people on earth will actually begin to decline. Women in the wealthier parts of Asia, for example, are literally on a “marriage strike” leading to a drop in birth rates.
Bitch Media
Social Commentary post by Holly Grigg-Spall,
March 12, 2010
University of Massachusetts professor Chris Bobel is the author of the soon to be released book New Blood: Third-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation. In this two-part interview she unpacks periods and the activism, advertising and controversy that makes them so very personal and so very political.
How did you come to see menstruation as more than a personal matter?
A slogan menstrual activists use is ‘We’re Making Bleedin’ Everyone’s Issue.’ As women, we are expected to keep our periods hidden and silenced. We internalize this attitude, and police each other: Women learn to hate their bodies, seeing them through racism, ageism and sexism as problems to be fixed through constant ‘improvements’ – that too big nose, too-dark skin, too-narrow eyes, tiny breasts, fat butt. And now we can ‘improve’ the body even more – we can eliminate menstruation altogether with pills such as Lybrel and Seasonique.
Calorie Lab
August 12, 2011
A study conducted by the University of Michigan School of Public Health found that Colombian girls 5 to 12 years old with low vitamin D levels doubled their chance of having their first period, called menarche, during the 30 month follow up. Fifty-seven percent of deficient girls reached menarche around 11.8 years compared to 12.6 years in the sufficient group.
The Women’s Media Center
By Dr. Sharon Ufberg
August 1, 2011
Authored by Lisa Cosgrove of the Harvard Center for Ethics, a recent statistical analysis of studies assessing the relationship between breast and ovarian cancer and antidepressant drug use finds possible link.
Are you one of the thousands of women currently taking antidepressants? A recent review indicates that these medications are not risk free, particularly for women.
The analysis of published studies suggests a link between breast and ovarian cancer and antidepressant drug usage. The review, which found an 11 percent increased risk overall in both breast and ovarian cancer for patients taking such medication, points to a need for further investigation, particularly since the results varied widely depending on who funded the research.
Age of Autism
By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.
August 4, 2011
As part of my continuing series of articles which I think should be subtitled, Official Documents which Scare the Living Daylights Out of Me! I offer this July 24, 2011 publication from the Food and Drug Adminstration.
The release is entitled Investigating Viruses in Cells Used to make Vaccines; and Evaluating the Potential Threat Posed by Transmission of Viruses to Humans. XMRV is prominently featured as a virus about which they are concerned. Please feel free to read the entire document at FDA.gov.
When is the right time to have “The Talk” with your child? This week’s topic suggested by Wakefield Patch reader Melissa.
Wakefield Patch
August 2011
Tasha Schlake Festel
Anyone who knows me knows I’ll talk about pretty much anything, anytime, anywhere… often to my husband’s chagrin. This generally applies to my children as well. However, to be honest, prior to this week’s topic, I hadn’t spent a lot of time considering how I was going to discuss sex with my kids. They’re 5 and 7. Sex isn’t on my radar for impending discussions, unlike “you may not hit in kindergarten” and “there is a difference between being honest and being a jerk.”
